Kingdom Keepers V (9781423153429) (14 page)

“Unreal!” said Maybeck, leaning his head out of his own stateroom a few doors down.

In fact, Finn's stateroom was beyond even that. It was more incredible than the most beautiful hotel room he'd ever seen, in any movie, in any magazine. Ever. Wood-paneled, super-soft furniture, a flat panel television with wireless keyboard and gaming, private balcony. A giant bed. Singularly awesome bathroom with a Jacuzzi tub and separate glassed-in shower.

“Sick,” Finn whispered to himself.

A knock at the door, and a moment later Finn and Philby had connected the two staterooms by a common door between them. Philby and his mom had a room even bigger than Finn's, with a dining table and living area, meaning two televisions and two bathrooms. Philby pointed out to Finn how not only the couch converted to a bed, but there was also a bunk hidden in the ceiling that could be set up by the steward at night.

The staterooms shared stewards, who were like butlers and housecleaners all in one.

“We're out of here in five minutes. Okay?” Philby said.

“No problem.”

Finn turned on the television in his room, walked out onto the deck, and looked over the side. A few minutes later, he discovered a television that appeared in the mirror in the bathroom. The suite was
sweet
—it had all sorts of tricks.

He and Philby compared notes as they hurried down the hall. Finn knocked on Maybeck's door. Maybeck opened it.

“You good?”

Maybeck opened his hand, revealing the all-important Return. The next-generation device linked to DHI 2.0 was smaller than the previous version. It looked like a rectangular thumb drive with a button in the middle.

“We're going to put this somewhere only we can find it.”

“Center of the ship,” Philby reminded. The
Dream
was more than a thousand feet long; he didn't want the Keepers to have to run a fifth of a mile of ship decks to exit DHI.

“It's cool,” Maybeck said.

“And remember,” Philby warned, “they clean this ship every day like it's a hospital.”

“I know…to keep everyone healthy.”

“We'll have to find a place to hide it they won't find.”

“I'll tell you what,” Maybeck said, irritated. “You do your jobs and we'll do ours.”

Stung, Philby stepped back.

“Easy,” Finn said to Maybeck.

“He's not the only expert,” Maybeck said.

“Later,” Finn said.

He'd noticed small cracks developing between Philby and the other Keepers of late. Finn attributed them to Philby's unnerving and growing sense of superiority. If you asked him, Philby didn't have an equal. Finn knew that the stress, the nagging, often terrifying realization that there were people—creatures—after you, didn't help things. It wasn't something anyone should have to live with, Finn thought. The nightmares, the paranoia were all part of it. Jumping awake at the slightest sound; lying awake afraid to go back to sleep. Robbed of the only escape.

Philby assumed his brainpower gave him a position of superiority over the others. But impatience had replaced tolerance. Assuredness, confidence. Rudeness, consideration. He no longer thought himself superior—he knew it. How long he could last in a group whose members fed off one another was unclear, given his unwillingness to participate as an equal. Finn felt the rope fraying at both ends.

“You know,” Finn said to Philby, “in a way we, the Keepers, are kind of like the Base.”

“How so?”

“Under siege. Surrounded. We're being slowly choked and starved by the enemy. Maybe not of food. But sleep. Tolerance. Patience.”

“Interesting analogy,” Professor Philby said. “But I don't agree. Soldiers suffer in any war. We are not surrounded. We're under attack. The two are very different. The strategy we must adopt, Finn, is to go on the offensive. Attack! We can't sit back.”

“But where?” Finn asked, bristling at his attitude. He might have once expected such bravado from Maybeck, but Philby? “Who? The ISP for the OTs' server keeps moving. How are we supposed to hit a moving target?”

“That's why we're here,” Philby reminded.

“Part of why we're here,” Finn said.

“To each his own.”

“Meaning?”

“It's why we're here…it's exactly what we're about to do,” Philby said, as if obvious. “This is what it's all about.”

Get a life, Finn felt like saying, knowing he too was overtired.

“You want a mind-bender?” Philby asked.

“Sure,” Finn said, always up for a challenge.

“How come when you—or any of us—goes
all clear
we don't fall through the ground?”

Finn was about to answer when he caught himself. “Interesting.”

“We can pass through walls. Stuff can pass through us. Yet we don't sink into the ground and disappear. Why not?”

“
All clear
,” Finn clarified, “as opposed to holograms, since the holograms are projections?”

“Exactly.”

“It's a nonissue in 2.0. And we can't go
all clear
from our human state anymore. They removed that ability.”

“Are you sure?”

“Of course I'm sure,” Finn said, his voice quavering.

“But we haven't field-tested that,” Philby said.

“No, I suppose not.” If Philby was trying to bait Finn to ask the obvious, Finn wasn't biting. He refused to believe Philby could go
all clear
when in a waking state, given the limitation imposed by the 2.0 upgrade. If any Keeper was going to master that power, it would be him, not Philby. Or so he hoped.

Philby asked, “What if back in 1.6 we stayed on the ground when
all clear
because we wanted to?” He allowed Finn a moment to consider the idea. “The same way fear took us out of
all clear
, intention kept us where we wanted to be: standing on a floor or on the ground.”

“We control it all?” Finn said in a whisper. Then he said, “Is this honestly how you spend your time? Thinking up this stuff?”

“It's interesting.”

Not really, Finn was thinking. You're just showing off.

“What if we could master
all clear
in 2.0? Turn ourselves into projections with nothing more than the intention? Once
all clear
, 2.0's stability would lock it in.”

“But it's the stability of the upgrade that prevents us from going
all clear
. Right?”

“Is it?” Philby asked.

“You're the wizard. You tell me!”

“We've barely broken the seal,” Philby said. “Like any upgrade to any operating system, 2.0 goes way deeper, has way more bells and whistles than we know.” He paused. “Way more!”

Finn felt like shoving him. It was like Philby was teasing him—that he was going to make Finn beg to hear more.

“What is it with you?” Finn said.

Philby grinned slyly. “Nothing,” he said, not meaning it at all. “No big.”

P
hilby hadn't taken his eyes off his watch since arriving outside the Radio Studio on Deck 14.

“The security office is located on Deck One. That's basically fourteen floors below us. Right now, with two thousand guests coming aboard, the elevators are packed and slow. That suggests security guys would take the stairs. At a full run it would take at least five minutes to get up here. More like seven or eight.”

“O-kay,” Finn said, a little tired of all the lectures.

“You understand,” Philby continued, “that what we're about to do is illegal. Beyond illegal. It's probably considered more like an act of terrorism or something.”

“Way to build my confidence,” Finn said.

“I'm just saying—”

“I get it.”

“Big trouble, serious trouble if we get caught.”

“I got it the first time.” Finn studied the door. “How are we supposed to get in there?”

“Wayne said we'd know.”

“Know what?”

“Don't ask me! How to get in, I suppose.”

“And do you?”

“No,” Philby confessed. “But he named the time and place. It can't be that hard.”

“You don't sound convinced,” Finn said.

“Listen, this ship carries the most advanced technology there is. Only the U.S. Navy has stuff more serious than this. When we key this door open, that action is recorded into a log. It's on a hard drive somewhere. And it'll show up on security's monitors—”

“As an authorized entry.”

“We hope so, yes. Hopefully Wayne is sending someone with access to the Radio Studio. So it shouldn't raise a red flag. But a security guy could decide to take a look at the studio's security cameras because of the alert, because of the entry. If he does, then he's going to see two kids in there. So there're two issues.”

“There's a surprise.”

“First, if they see two kids on their monitors, chances are they're going to come looking for us.”

“Perfect.”

“Second, if they're watching us, we can't show them what we're up to. Don't forget it's likely being recorded. So we have to mislead them so that even if they review the videos they don't get what's going on.”

“You're not talking just about security guys,” Finn said knowingly.

“Maybe not.”

“You're saying the Overtakers can tap into the security video feeds?” He felt his heartbeat increase. “Seriously?”

“All I'm saying is it can't hurt to take precautions.”

“So once we're in there, we're going to do one thing, but pretend we're doing something else?”

“Two things,” Philby corrected. “We went over this. I'm counting on you, Finn.”

You and everybody else, Finn thought.

“We want to look like two kids pretending to be radio dudes. You know: kidding around. So we're going to jump from talking to each other across the interview desk to me at the controls. Kids playing around.”

“I got it.”

“And in the meantime—”

“You're going to work your magic,” Finn said.

“You look terrified.”

“I am terrified,” Finn said. “We get kicked off the ship in the first hour we're aboard, we're not exactly making things better.”

“This stuff has to get tested while we're still tied to shore.”

“Yeah, yeah. The hard link to our land-based server.” Finn had been told of the requirement twice.

“Yes. I need to establish a land-linked Ethernet handshake with our DHI server to assign a static IP address. It's how the server works. Once I've got that address established, it can be reassigned to the wireless system on board. But it's not easy. It's not quick. And don't forget your call to Wayne.”

Three times. “But it's not a call.”

“Radio, whatever.”

“But why not just call me on my cell?”

“Wayne does stuff…his way.”

“Yeah, I noticed.” He didn't like having to listen to Philby telling him about Wayne. It made him uneasy. Jealous, if he was being truthful.

“There's got to be a reason,” Philby said. “Doesn't matter.” He checked his watch. “Transmission's in ten…nine minutes.”

“So shouldn't we get in there?” Finn asked. “Get started?”

“Do you see a key anywhere?”

“No.”

“We need a key.”

For Finn the next minute was very long. Knowing nothing of what the Radio Studio looked like, he tried to rehearse the next few steps in his head. Tried to see himself and Philby in there so it wouldn't seem so foreign when the time came.

They stood in front of the glass door etched RADIO STUDIO in smoky lettering. The studio interior was dark.

Finn caught movement to his left, down the stairs. A swish of reddish-black hair, olive skin. The flutter of footsteps racing away from them. Instinctively, he moved toward the activity.

Looking down at the next landing, he saw a colorful card the size of a credit card on the carpet.

A ship ID and room key.

Philby saw it too. He waved the key card.

“The old goat delivered!”

Finn didn't appreciate Wayne being called an old goat. He was about to protest as Philby hurried past him and waved the key in front of the door. It unlocked.

Finn glanced back down the stairs, wondering who their ally was. “Let me see that card,” he said.

Philby pocketed it. “No time.”

They entered, quickly shutting the door behind them.

Finn slid into a seat in front of one of three microphones. Philby took the engineer's chair.

“How do you even know what you're doing?”

Philby shot him a look as if to say,
Who says I do?
He threw several switches, put on a set of headphones, pushed some buttons, then adjusted a tuner. He worked some faders on the soundboard in front of him and stabbed some buttons there as well. Finn also donned a pair of headphones; suddenly there was a deafening voice.

“This is Lou Mongello, calling for the
Dream
Radio Studio.”

Philby spoke to Finn. “Lou Mongello runs WDW Radio on the web. Wayne used his station as the go-between to make the contact with us. Less chance of being discovered. Basically it's like this: Wayne will pretend to be interviewing you for Lou's show.”

“Got it.” Why did Philby know all this stuff?

“You may need to ask him questions as well.”

“Sure.”

“This is the Studio,” Philby said into a microphone. “We've got you, Lou.”

“Ready for the interview?” Lou Mongello said.

“We're ready on this end.”

“I'm busy today, so I'm going to turn this over to one of my reporters.”

“No problem,” said Philby. He covered up his microphone and spoke to Finn. “He's putting Wayne on.”

Finn gave him the thumbs-up.

“This is Mr. Alcott,” Wayne said, using his daughter's surname. “Mr. Lawrence?”

“I'm on,” Finn said. The interview was under way. Philby left the chair and got busy with other machinery. Finn watched Philby while speaking to Wayne.

The Radio Studio was aft-facing with a spectacular view of the back half of the ship and the Inland Waterway beyond.

“Welcome to the show, Mr. Lawrence. I understand you're involved in archives at Disney's Hollywood Studios?” Wayne's warm voice said through the headphones.

“Yes,” Finn said, trying to play along. “An interest of mine for some time now.”

“And you've visited the facility recently?”

“I have,” Finn said, recalling his description to Wayne about the confrontation with Maleficent and the two others. “I discovered a volume that was of particular interest to me. Of interest to many, I'm sure. A journal that dates back to the early days.”

“Are you aware there are many similar journals in the Disney Family Museum in San Francisco?”

Finn tried to make sense of the comment. “I…ah…I'll have to get out there sometime. I'm based on the East Coast right now. Similar in what way?”

“As you know, the Imagineers have been scanning the contents of the library, and the journal you refer to detailed the creation of many of Walt Disney's most beloved and most feared characters.”

“Yes, of course.” Wayne had told him as much on the train.

“This particular volume is among those not yet scanned…” Wayne paused, allowing it to sink in. “But there is a card catalog entry listing some of its contents, and it includes information about the enchantment of Chernabog.” He allowed the words to hang there.

Finn tried to translate what he was hearing. Chernabog was Disney's most evil villain. The enchantment of Chernabog…the thought of that turned his stomach.

“The original entries about the beast's origin. It is, without a doubt, the most important entry in the volume.” He was speaking somewhat obliquely for the sake of their conversation.

“Okay. Got it,” Finn said. “That
is
interesting.”

“Isn't it, though? What's your overall impression of the Disney library?” Wayne went on to ask a half dozen meaningless questions. Finn did his best to answer. The message had been received: the enchantment of Chernabog was all that mattered. Either Maleficent, the Evil Queen, or, less likely, Cruella had wanted that information badly enough to break into the library for it. That couldn't be good.

Before ending the interview, Wayne passed along a place and time: Buena Vista Theatre balcony, eleven thirty p.m. Finn would be there.

“It's not like Maleficent's collecting a family history,” Finn said to Philby.

“Not hardly,” Philby said as he continued to work with a device about the size of a hardcover book.

“Is that the GPS?”

“Technically speaking it's a location transmitter. We'll use the studio's connection to the dish to send our position back to Base. All other Internet traffic is monitored and filtered. They don't mess with this line because for voice clarity it's a direct connection to the transmission dish.”

“And so this box, by showing the
Dream
's position, is supposed to help the Imagineers narrow down the location of the OTs' DHI server?”

“It never stays in one place. It moves up and down the east coast of Florida. It's likely a relay from one of the cruise ships. By transmitting our exact location, they can determine if it's us or another of the ships.”

“Or not a ship at all,” Finn said.

“That too.”

“And this is supposed to take you how long?”

“I'm working as fast as I can.” He said it condescendingly, as if emphasizing that Finn was no use in such technical matters.

“The reason I ask,” Finn clarified, “is because if anyone's on their way up, then according to you, they will be here in approximately…forty-five seconds.”

“Five minutes? That was fast.” Philby snapped an Ethernet cable into the box, flicked a switch, and illuminated a light on the device. “That's it.”

“We're gone,” Finn said.

He and Philby stepped up to the smoky glass door.

“Wait a second,” Philby said. He slipped off his running shoe, put the Radio Studio key card into his shoe, and put the shoe back on.

“Smart,” Finn said. If the boys were patted down by security, the only key card found on Philby would be his room card. Only a strip search would locate the real key, and Disney wasn't about to strip search anyone, especially one of their VIP guests.

“I do my best.”

Finn cringed.

They stepped out onto the landing. Two things happened at once: the security guys arrived up the stairs, and a girl—a young Asian woman in the shorts and polo shirt of the ship's crew—arrived to the far side of a glass door leading into the Outlook piano bar. She spotted the security guys and turned around, heading deeper into the bar. A swish of black hair.

“You there!” called out one of the security men to the boys.

“Who else?” Philby said, indicating it was only him and Finn standing there.

Finn waved. “Hey!” He looked down, making sure his red VIP lanyard and special Captain Mickey key card showed in the lanyard's plastic sleeve.

The security guy knew his stuff. He appraised Finn's credentials from a distance and altered his tone of voice from accusatory to cooperative.

“Welcome aboard!” the man said. “Anything we can help with?”

The other security guy approached the studio door and pulled, ensuring it was locked. He then unlocked it and went inside.

“I was scheduled for a radio interview,” Finn said. “I'm DHI. A guest—”

“A Kingdom Keeper. Yeah. I know,” interrupted the big man. “We've all been looking forward to this cruise.”

The men shook hands with both boys.

“If you need anything,” the security man offered, “it's Steven.”

“Absolutely,” Finn said.

“I hope they give you time so as you can enjoy the cruise,” said the other.